South Carolina U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-Beaufort, has introduced legislation which attempts to localize disaster assistance by allowing homeowners associations, condominiums and retirement communities to apply for emergency aid after a storm.

South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford. file

The Disaster Assistance Equity Act (H.R. 3238) would make “common interest communities” (such as condos, housing cooperatives or retirement communities) eligible for the same Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance available to traditional homeowners following a disaster.

It would also allow homeowners associations be eligible for the same Public Assistance Program grants that state and local governments can receive after a disaster. The grant money can be used for debris clearance and common infrastructure repair.

“I find it strange that FEMA treats the 70 million Americans who live in common interest communities differently than it does those who live in other types of communities,” Sanford said in a release. “In my experience, storms don’t discriminate between different kinds of communities. As such, it seems to me that FEMA should treat them all equally when it comes to the assistance available in the wake of a disaster.”

The bill has bipartisan support, although Sanford is the only Southern member of Congress to sign onto the measure so far. Other co-sponsors are U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-NY, Eliot Engel, D-NY, Peter King, R-NY and Lee Zeldin, R-NY.

Charleston will be undertaking an extensive reconstruction project to replace and raise its landmark Low Battery seawall.

Charleston’s Low Battery (Image: City of Charleston)

City Planning Director Jacob Lindsey told South Carolina Radio Network the work will help prevent tidal flooding.

“High tide causes water to overtop the wall and that’s one of the reason we’re elevating the wall,” Lindsey said.

A 2004 study which evaluated the condition of the Low Battery wall also presented potential repair methods and a probable cost estimate. Due to the time elapsed since the study was conducted, an updated evaluation and repair and rehabilitation recommendations are needed.

Lindsey said the reconstruction won’t prevent flooding during heavy rain. “What it will do is eliminate the number of days that we do have tidal flooding or nuisance flooding,” he said. “It won’t prevent flooding that happens from storms or hurricanes because that’s from rainfall.”

The city is seeking public input on the design of the public space along the waterfront seawall through a series of information booths being set up at various locations.

Once a final design is chosen, actual work on the seawall probably will not begin until next year.

Trucks work to renourish Edisto Beach following Hurricane Matthew surge damage last year (Image: SC Dept. of Transportation)

A new report from an environmental advocacy group warns a dozen South Carolina communities could be averaging two floods per-month in the next 20 years if sea levels continue rising at the current rate.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a new report Wednesday identifying areas across the country which would be hit by “chronic inundation” — at least ten percent of its usable land affected by floods on average every other week — under a moderate sea rise. The group used the 2014 National Climate Assessment’s forecasts for “low,” “intermediate” and “high” sea level scenarios to create three potential outcomes if the ocean’s water level continues to increase.

Lead author Erika Spanger-Siegfried said the popular vacation spots of Edisto Beach and Kiawah Island would see at least 10 percent impacts by 2035 under even intermediate conditions. “It’s no longer a question of ‘if’ sea levels are rising and accelerating, it’s more a question of ‘when’ and ‘where’ sea level rise would impact us along the coast,” she told South Carolina Radio Network. [Read more…]

The findings suggest the coasts could be prone to cloudier conditions and more clouds could be a reality as the eclipse travels across the country east of the Mississippi River.

According to NCEI the narrow band of land that will experience the eclipse in its totality in South Carolina are Clemson at 75 percent, Greer 65 percent, Charleston 53 percent and Columbia at 43 percent for likely favorable viewing conditions.

The higher the percentage, the better the chance that the skies will be clear enough for the eclipse to be seen totally.

The best chance for cloud-free viewing is in Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska.

A solar eclipse occurs whenever the moon’s orbit takes it directly between the Earth and the sun. For those in the moon’s shadow, the sky will briefly go dark until the moon’s orbit moves past the sun.

South Carolina’s Upstate is no longer in a severe drought following a wet May.

The state Drought Response Committee downgraded the statuses of every county northwest of the Midlands at its Tuesday meeting. The committee had classified all of the Upstate as either in “moderate” or “severe” drought at its last meeting in April, but said conditions had significantly improved since then. After Tuesday, no county is listed worse than “incipient” drought — the first stage below normal.

“We’ve experienced a drastic turnaround in just two months’ time,” West Region Drought Committee Member Dennis Chastain said. “Groundwater has significantly improved. Streams are flowing well. There are no water supply problems. And agriculture at all levels seems to be in great shape.” [Read more…]

South Carolina public health officials are concerned about the relatively low number of people who stayed in emergency shelters when Hurricane Matthew blew through the Lowcountry last year.

Department of Health and Environmental Control officials say a new survey starting this weekend will ask coastal residents what they did during the hurricane and if they have a plan for the next disaster. Deputy Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness Jamie Blair said his agency wants to know why residents did not use the shelters.

“We’re just trying to validate, did people already have a plan to take care of themselves? To go to hotels, go stay with families?” he told South Carolina Radio Network. “Was it because they didn’t have transportation and they need transportation to get to these shelters? Did they not know the shelters existed?” [Read more…]

This year’s peach season isn’t very sweet to farmers who rely on the fruit for a living.

After temperatures dropped below freezing several times in March, farmers expected that around 80 percent of South Carolina’s peach crop would die off. Now that the usual picking season has arrived, Black’s Peaches farm manager Beth Black said things are worse than they initially thought.

“Hopefully we can get 20 percent. But some of them now are producing little peaches but they are falling off of the tree, which is weird,” Black said. “So that’s why we might only have 15 percent.”

South Carolina is the second-largest peach producing state in the nation with an annual crop value of $90 million. The impact of losing 80 percent of a peach crop stretches beyond just farmers. Usually Black’s Peaches hires ten additional workers for the peach harvest, but this year they must make do with less help.

“This year we haven’t done any hiring,” said Black. “You can’t think about it a whole lot but it does hurt the business tremendously when that is your main crop.”

Black says the farm will have enough peaches to sell at their farm shop, but they will not be able to meet the demand from grocery stores and other vendors. To make up for those losses, Black hopes that customers will buy other produce from them to offset the financial troubles that stem from a lost crop.

“We just try to think of other things that we can sell. Like, hopefully people will want to buy more tomatoes, more squash, zucchini, that kind of thing but you just take it as a loss,” he said.

Black said their farm starts picking peaches in late-May. But this year, workers have not even started picking yet because their fruit are too small or falling off the tree before ripening.

A University of South Carolina environmental law professor said the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement climate accord goes beyond just the natural impact.

University of South Carolina photo.

Nathan Richardson told South Carolina Radio Network that it also sends the world a message about what could happen with other foreign agreements like trade deals. “I think that’s the real risk here beyond big short term changes in climate or energy policy,” said Richardson.

Richardson is not surprised by President Trump’s withdrawal from the pact, ssince he said the president made it clear during the campaign that he was going to do it.

On Thursday, Trump said the U.S. would reenter the Paris Accord after the agreement becomes a better deal for America. But since the agreement involves voluntary reduction goals set by the U.S., the president was not specific on what that deal would be.

Richardson said South Carolina may be impacted by climate. “Things like sea level rise,” he said. “Things like higher temperatures although the data is less certain on things like more storms, it may make changes in precipitation.”

As hurricane season officially begins Thursday, a University of South Carolina geography professor warns coastal families to have a hurricane plan now — there won’t be time once a storm does bear down on the state.

(Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Professor Susan Cutter told South Carolina Radio Network that, if a hurricane warning is issued, keep an eye on the storm’s expected path. “To be concerned about and aware of in preparedness is to understand that a storm is coming and to watch for changes in the track of that storm,” she said.

Cutter said that the best time to come up with a plan for your family is now. “You should be aware of how you would evacuate your family, where the meeting points would be and how to secure your home,” she told South Carolina Radio Network.

Forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have already predicted it could be an above-average season for named storms in the Atlantic. “The thing to keep in mind is that this maybe an active hurricane season and there is no such thing as a minor hurricane,” Cutter said. “Paying attention to what is going on and heeding the warnings.”